Manipulating and firing marine torpedoes



(No Model.)

T. M: BRASHER. MANIPULATING AND FIRINGMARINE TORPEDOES;

No. 287,221. Patented Oct. 23, 1883.

F 5 :1 l 5 i .fiwenfoi? am 222% A U NrrEn STATES PATENT QEFICE.

THOMAS M. BRASHER, OF BROOKLYN, NE\V YORK.

MANIPULATI NG AND FIRING MARINE TORPEDOES.

APIIllCD-tiOB filed May 2, 1883.

- ZCI'JFICA'lION forming part of LettersaPatent No. 287.221. dated October 23, 1883.

(No model.)

.To (LZZ whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, THOMAS M. Bnasnnn, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of Xcw York, have invented a new and. useful Improvement in Submarine Torpedoes and Devices for Manipulating and Firing them; and I hereby declare the following to be a full and clear description of the same.

This invention has for its object the construction and manipulation of a torpedo which can be attached to a ships cable, while the ship is riding at-anchor in a stream or current, in such a manner as to allow the torpedo to float under the ship by the action of the tide or current, and then the torpedo exploded by electricity. The torpedo is towed out into the scream or other water by a suitable tug or boat, the tow-line to be attached to a grapple or clutch of peculiar construction, as herein afterfully explained, which said clutch, by a little manipulation of the operators, is made to catch onto the cable of the ship to be oper ated 011-. The tow-line is made in two sections spliced together, one section or end of the line being simply a light whale-line, while the other section or end is made up of a compound of insulated copper wires and an exterior wrapping of wire or other material, to give the proper strength, which must be equal to that of the whale-line. The cored or wired section of the tow-line is to extend from the firing-station to the clutch above mentioned, andthence on to the torpedo, which is to be swung under the ship, as hercinfter described. The whale-line end of the tow-line is of course to be used simply for towing.

The details of the invention will be readily understood from the subj oined description and from the accompanying drawings, oi Whl0l1 Figurel is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a stream or water in which the torpedo is being applied to the destruction of a large ship. Fig. 2 is a general plan of the same. Fig. 3 is a detailed section of the wired or cored end of the tow-l i no. Fig. t isa longitudinal sectional ele- 'vation of theclutch. For the sake of perspi cuity, in this view there are only two of the chitch-hooksshown, butin rcalitythcrc should be six of them, as shown in Fig. '5, so as to make certain oioueot'them beingin posit ion to catch on the cable when drawn across it. Fig. 5 is an end elevation of the clutch. Fig. (i is a plan of the torpedo, showing the method of attaching the tow-line and the firing-wires to it. Fig. 7 is an end elevation of the torpedo, showing the radiating spring-guards at-- tached to it.

The figure A in the general drawings represents a ship which isto be operated upon by this torpedo. This ship is moored in a stream or in any navigable water where a current or its keel will he in a line with the anchoring cable It. The torpedo is to be placed by means of a tug or small boat, 13, which on commencing this duty will start from a station, l3, and cross the ships bow, at some distance therefrom, to the station 13 The sta utipalseli and Btaretofihc assumed to he at a sul'ticient distance from the ship to mask the operations of the attack, and in moving from the station B to the station B the boat B can make a detour su'l'liciently up the stream or current, shown in Fig. 2, to prevent a disclosure of themovemcnt to those on oard the ship. Vhcn the boat 1) starts from the station B, she will commence paying out from a suitable drum or reel on board a tow-line, (l, and she will continue paying out this tow-line until she arrives at the station ll.

In Fig. 2 the path of the tug or torpedo-boat is indicated by the curved line (7 c, the line representing the tow -line already paid out from the boat 13 at its position shown in Fig. 2, and the line (1 representing the path of the line yet to be laid before reaching the station B \Vhen the boat I; arrives at the station ll, she will commence to wind up the drum from which the tow-line was unwound, and in doing so wiltili'aw the tow-lino taut across the bows ot the ship A and overlying the anchor end of the cable A. The operatives will continue winding up the tow-line until the clutchl) 1), attached to the said tow-lino, shall have caught on and attached itself to the ca blc A.

The construction of the clutch 1) 1G is clearly shown in Figs. dand 5. The clutch is formed of two parts, as is clearly shown in dig. a, consisting of the clutch proper, I), and the guard l'l. luach ol'thesc parts is formed of curved tidal flow will swing the ship around, so that slide over 2 esmeei metallic arms fixed radially, respectively, to the sliding heads (Z c, which are placed adjust ably on the tow-line O, and. secured thereto in any do 'ired positions by means of the respective set crews (1 e. Vhen the boat B leaves the station 33, she will leavethis clutch at the said stationand attached to the tow-line end left at that station, so that when, from station B the said tow line is drawn up taut, the said clutch may be drawn. along withit across the cable A as desired. In drawing this clutch forward from station B to the cable the guard ill will be in front, and by meains of its radial projecting arms or guard-bars will easily impediment on the bottom over which it is drawn, and also over the cable A when it is reached.

The clutch D has the open end of its radial arms forward'or next to the guard-piece E, and sufficiently removed therefrom to allow the cable A to slip in between them/and be engaged by the projecting arms of the clutch,

as shown clearly in Fig. 4, The arms of the guard E have their projecting ends rounded off, so as to allow them to glide smoothly over the bottom," and the projecting ends of the clutcl1-bars are also rounded off, so as to prevent their catching on anything over which they are drawn until they reach the cable, and then the cable will easily slip in between the guard and the clutch, and,passing in between the bars of the clutch, be retained by them as the free of the clutch-bars turn inward, as is clearly shown in Fig. 4, thereby locking or holding the. clutch onto the cable as desired. I v

The bars forming the projecting radial arms of the clutch and its guard are preferably made of spring-steel; but this is not importaut.

The torpedo F is made of twometallic cylinders screwed together in a central band, and attached to the end of the tow linc, which is bifurcated, so as to allow one section of the line to pass down on one side of the torpedo, and the other section of the line down on the other side of the torpedo, as shown in Fig. 4;, thereby causing the torpedo to tow fairly in a right line. The tow-lineis attached to the torpedo by means of lugs or loops f, projecting l'rom the sides of the torpedo for that purpose. The wires l? N, that are to fire the torpedo, leave the cable at the point of its bifurcation, as shown in Fig. 6, and between the point of leaving the cable and the point of cnleri ng the torpedo the said wires are curved or bent into sinuosities, so to prevent any lounge-strain on them, and to allow for a con sidcrable movement of the tow-line in either direction without injuring the torpedo 91' cansing a leakage at the point of missing the electrical. wires into it. The .l'ront end of the torpedo is made conical, so as to facilitate its lowage, and attached to its i'orwardend,or to the sides of it near the forward end, and rapoint of attach ment is a series of spring-guards, f, as shownin Figs 6 and 7. These springguards are made of small steel rods, and'serve to keep the torpedo'off of the bottom, and help it to rise over any obstacle while it is being towed into position. v I

The tow-line G,for the first half of it nearest the station B, (when first land) is simply an ordinary whale line; but the other end of it, which isattached to the torpedo, is a cored or compound line having two or more wires, 1? N but for. facilityof constructing the li e I prefer three of the core-wires, as Show V Fig. 3, as the three wires can be more readily The two sections of the line thus formed -v'ia, the whale-line and the cored lineshould be of about equal strength, and the wires P N must'be thoroughly insulated and protected.

' After the boat B shall have reached the stastion B in the process of placing this torpedo, the first operation'is to draw in the tow-line, thus bringing on board the small boat all of the, w11alc-1ine and the first or attached end of the cored line. This will draw the clutch D E from the station B to the vicinity of the cable A, and as the clutch is drawn over the said cable at a short-distance from the anchor;

and held, and the attempt to draw the towline on boa-rd the boat B will then cease. As soon as the strain on the tow-line ceases, the action of the current or tide may cause the clutch to slide up somewhat on the cable some distance toward the ship, and the torpedo attached to the end of the tow-linc-will. also swing around directly in a line-with the cable, and under the ship, if the calculations previously made as to the depth of water, position of anchor, slope of cable, &c.,-have been correct, or nearly so. 01' course much or" this information can readily be obtained from known and reliable data, as published chart-s will in most instances give the depth of water, character of bottom, and direction and strength of currents, while careful observations previously made will supply all other needed information. Much valuable data can also be obtained by a series of careful experiments, such as are usually made on undertakings of this character, and on the information thus readily accessible ordinarily skillful men can reasonably expect to clutch a;

sh-ips cable and send a torpedo under her bottom in proper position to blow up and destroy the ship, with very little chance of miscarriage of the attempt. it is ei'ident, of course, that this operation is to be'conducted in the night, and masked, as far as possible, from disclosure by electric lightin A foggy night would be admirably adapted to the purpose. As soon as the cable is cl niche (l and the torpedo placed under the ship, the torpedo can be fired by,

electricity, in the usual manner, through the cored cable from the station 13.

Having described my invention, I clai1n 1. A wire cored tow-line and an attached submarine torpedo, 'in combination with an automatic clutch attached to the tow-line for grappling with the anchoringcable of a ship or vessel riding at anchor, the said clutch being formed of radiating arms, and attached to the said tow-line in such a manner as to be readily drawn across and grappled onto the anchoring-cable of a ship riding at anchor in a stream or current.

2. A clutch formed of a-series of short metallic rods or arms fixed to and radiating from a central hub-piece which is arranged to coir centrically surround a towing-line, and adj ustably attached thereto by means of a set-screw, the said radiating-arms made to slope outwardly from the central line at angles of about thirty degrees therewith, and the disengaged ends of the said radiating arms curved inwardly toward the towing-line which carries them; also, in combination with said clutch, a guard formed of a similar adjustably-attached hub-piece and radiating metallic arms, except the distended ends of the guard-rods constructed with out re-entering curves toward the tow-line, as in the case ot'the clutch proper.

Acylindrical torpedo having a wire cored tow-line attached thereto by means of peripheral loopsor attachments placed in pairs on diametrically-opposite sides of the torpedoone pair near either end of the torpedo and the towing-line bifurcated near the front end of the torpedo, so as to allow one part of the line to be attached to the attaching-loops on one side of the torpedo, and the other part to the attaching-loops on the other side of the torpedo, thereby causing the line of traction to coincide with the longitudinal axis of the torpedo. I

4. A cylindrical submarine torpedo provided with an attached. wire cored tow-line for towing and exploding it, and a guard at its front end composed of metallic rods rigidly fixed to the center of its forward end, and radiating rcarwardl y therefrom in lateral, downward, and upward directions, soas to allow the said torpedo, in being towed to its position, to rise over or pass around obstructions that may be encountered.

' THOMAS M. BRASHER.

\Vitnesses:

ALEXANDER Lownr, A. \V. Ni Bonus. 

